Second albums can be tough (as the saying goes, you spend your whole life making the first album and six months making the second). The so-called \u201csophomore slump\u201d exists for a reason, as far too many artists with great debuts can\u2019t meet the bell for round two without a mighty struggle. Just ask Terence Trent D\u2019arby (the guy even had to change his name).<\/p>\n
Dum Dum Girls raced off to a robust start with 2010\u2032s I Will Be, a fuzzy mix of \u201960s Motown and \u201980s distortion led lyrically by Dee Dee (the stage name of Kristen Gundred) and backed by Jules, Bambi and Sandy. With producer Richard Gottehrer (Blondie, Marshall Crenshaw, wrote \u201cMy Boyfriend\u2019s Back\u201d) at the helm, I Will Be was a revelation and a key mover in this new wave of surfy-shoegaze.<\/p>\n
For Only In Dreams, the foursome didn\u2019t want to take any chances, pairing Gottehrer with Sune Rose Wagner of the Raveonettes to ensure a second album to bolster the first. But the final result is tepid and lazy, a been-there, done-that effort with few moments of brilliance. Earlier this year the Dum Dum\u2019s covered The Smiths\u2019 \u201cThere Is a Light That Never Goes Out,\u201d but after listening to Dreams, my mind quickly referenced another Smiths tune: \u201cStop Me If You Think You\u2019ve Heard This One Before\u201d.<\/p>\n
The album starts off promising enough \u2013 \u201cAlways Looking\u201d is a firm two-minute race of \u201960s nostalgia, followed by the poppy \u201cBedroom Eyes,\u201d a song which feels comfortable in any decade, complete with a jangly guitar to compliment Dee Dee\u2019s sweet voice.<\/p>\n
But for whatever reason, the album shifts from dynamic to monotone, with songs melding together and losing identity. Just listen to \u201cIn My Head,\u201d \u201cHeartbeat\u201d and \u201cCaught in One\u201d and tell me the drum beat isn\u2019t exactly the same. With the drum drums, the Dum Dums were redundant redundant. It sounds as if the drum machine was left on, layered over with Guitar Pro surf licks. I couldn\u2019t tell you what Dee Dee sang \u2014 I hardly cared.<\/p>\n
Fortunately the band rises from its malaise with the stunning \u201cComing Down,\u201d a six and a half minute opus where Wagner\u2019s influence shines through. The quiet-loud-quiet song showcases Dee Dee\u2019s voice, backed by a band rising and falling with her every shout and whisper. If the album contained nine other songs of this depth, it would easily be my album of the year. It\u2019s not to be, though, as Dreams limps home with a trio of just-OK songs, rounding out the 36-minute album with a resigned sigh. I\u2019m disappointed, and I expected more from the Dum Dum Girls the second-time around \u2014 but maybe that\u2019s just my wishing well.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Second albums can be tough (as the saying goes, you spend your whole life making the first album and six months making the second). The so-called \u201csophomore slump\u201d exists for a reason, as far too many artists with great debuts can\u2019t meet the bell for round two without a mighty struggle. Just ask Terence Trent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1290,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[359,358],"class_list":["post-1289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-dum-dum-girls","tag-only-in-dreams"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1289"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1291,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1289\/revisions\/1291"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abandonedcouches.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}